Familiar Name Plans Another Run At Todd’s Seat

BERLIN – Setting up a
rematch of perhaps the closest election in Worcester County history, former
state’s attorney candidate Beau Oglesby, who came within 14 votes of unseating
incumbent Joel Todd in 2006, has officially filed to run for the office again
this fall.

Oglesby, an Ocean Pines
resident who is currently a deputy state’s attorney in Caroline County,
officially filed for Worcester County State’s Attorney last week. The formal
filing last Tuesday ostensibly sets up Todd-Oglesby III after his narrow defeat
in 2006 and an attempt to run against the incumbent in 2002, which was derailed
over residency issues in a case he ultimately appealed to the state’s Court of
Appeals.

In 2002, Oglesby filed
to run against Todd for Worcester County state’s attorney, but his application
was denied because he did not meet the residency requirements. Oglesby, an
assistant state’s attorney in Wicomico County at the time, was in the process
of building his home in Ocean Pines, but did not meet the minimum residency
requirements to file for office in Worcester. For the record, current Berlin
Mayor Gee Williams challenged Oglesby’s residency in a case that ultimately
found its way to the Court of Appeals before the high court agreed he did not
meet the standard.

Undaunted, Oglesby filed
again for state’s attorney in 2006 and took the incumbent Todd to the limits
during the election. Todd led Oglesby by a single vote when the polls closed on
Election Day in November 2006, but there were still 2,700 absentee ballots to
be counted. After that process, Oglesby had nudged ahead by two votes, but the
outcome was still in question because there were still about 270 provisional
ballots yet to be counted.

After the provisional
ballots had been counted, Todd had forged ahead by 16 votes, but the outcome
had still not been decided because of the existence of 37 ballots from county
residents living or working overseas who had filed them prior to the election.
With a 16-vote lead and 37 overseas ballots to count, Todd emerged as the
winner by a mere 14 votes and was re-elected to the position he held for the
previous 12 years.

Oglesby said this week
that loss by the narrowest of margins, along with the apparent continued
support of the electorate in Worcester County, fueled his desire to seek the
seat again. Although he has not formally filed, Todd has intimated he will seek
a fifth term as state’s attorney for Worcester County.

“To come that close to
winning, the logical decision was to run again,” said Oglesby this week. “The
feedback from the law enforcement community and the citizens of Worcester
County since 2006 assures me that my support has dramatically increased and
continues to grow everyday. I am looking forward to a positive campaign over
the next five months.”

Oglesby has been a
prosecutor on the Eastern Shore for 13 years, the most recent as a deputy
state’s attorney in Caroline County. He said this week his experiences since
the narrow loss in 2006 have strengthened his resolve to seek the Worcester
County position.

“Since the last
election, my experiences as a prosecutor have only heightened my awareness of
the need to create a safer environment for everyone,” he said. “I need to do
what I can to make Worcester County the safest community it can be to protect
my family and all the families that live and visit here.”

Oglesby, a Republican,
received his undergraduate degree from Salisbury University and his law degree
from the University of Baltimore School of Law. A member of the Community
Church of Ocean Pines, he lives in Ocean Pines with his wife Anne and their two
children.

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